Jonathan Mayhew (Ireland) is artist in residence at Konstepidemin during 2018

”My practice explores ways of intertwining poetic and post-conceptual ideas to create works that question the world around us. Through my interest in poetry, literature, technology and theory, I manipulate physical and invisible materials to contemplate pockets of daily life. Currently I am exploring points where quantum realties/physics, literature and poetry intersect. Science and poetry are both tools that can open our eyes to the complexity and beauty of the world. Joan Didion wrote ‘We tell ourselves stories in order live…’ Currently quantum physics exists as more as possible fictions telling us how the world might work. I am also interested in exploring how we think about data and how we use it, and in turn, how it can be used against us. So much information is flowing in, out and around us. Unimaginable amounts of money change hands at a seemingly impossible rate, making the world markets spin. Adrienne Rich’s poem ‘North American Time’ written in 1983 still feels incredibly relevant today. The line from verse two: ‘Everything we write/will be used against us/or against those we love.’ now has even more weight in the world of Web 2.0, where we are the endless content creators and where a careless tweet could change your life forever in a blink of an eye.

Working in a variety of media I choose the best way in which to communicate ideas or questions. Prints, texts, video, performance, sculpture and sound can all sit side-by-side reflecting of each other. By using found objects and elements I can offer new histories for them, imbuing them with new poetic elements.”

About the artist
Jonathan Mayhew, born in 1981 in Dublin, is an artist living and working between Goteborg, Dublin and various other places. He graduated from the National College of Art & Design in 2005 and continued on to the MFA program there, graduating in 2007.

In 2017 he showed in Kristiansand Kunsthall, Norway, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland, Visual Carlow, Ireland and had a solo exhibition ‘I wanted to write a poem’ in Wexford Arts Centre, Ireland, where he was the 2015 EVA award winner. Upcoming shows ‘digital_self’ at Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, Dec 2017- March- 2018 and Risør Kunstpakern, Risør, Norway, Aug-Oct 2018.